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Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Crisis Point 2018 Day 1

So, after a hearty breakfast at the local B&B, we headed across the road to the local Primary School hall. I took command of the Turkish forces, in the guise of Mustapha Pasha, on the Black Sea front, facing off against Ian S's Andreivian regulars dug in along the Dvimin line. Ian enjoyed five units of 12 infantry, each backed up by an MMG and 3 crew, as well as 2 Mk V tanks, one male and one female, plus support from a pair of medium mortars. He obviously thought the Turkish threat significant as he deployed three of the infantry units with MMGs along the second trench line, with one unit forward in the fortress of the Dvimin military academy. Only one infantry unit faced the Soviet thrust from the north. My Turks comprised 4 8 man infantry units plus a 12 man engineer unit with MMG, demo charges and a flamethrower. The Turkish HQ included 2 MMG with 3 crew and an attached team of German dragoons in a staff car, trained in naval gunfire support liaison. The Turks were supported by some German allies commanded by Arthur (a local lad from the village) who fielded 2 captured FT-17 tanks, 2 units of 18 infantry and one of 12 infantry on bicycles, plus a 3 man flamethrower team.

The Andrevians manning the second trench line backed up by a command bunker.﻿

Early congestion as the Turks and Germans tried to get across the first river line to get to grips with the Dvimin Military Academy fortress. The Turks made good use of requisitioned Dhows and barges to cross the river.

On the eastern front, Kev's Turks pursue the British Woosterforce, despite some stubborn little rearguard actions.

Help is on hand for the Turks on the Black Sea front as a Turkish battleship hoves into view.

Scratch built battleship by Kev - a fantastic build and a great mobile artillery platform.

The Trans-Caucasian Soviet commander, Russ Phillips, moves his Cossacks south towards the Andrevian's hasty stop line. Richard Phillips (AKA Sir Roderick Spode), commanding the British mission to Tcherbevan, watches on with detached interest, ordering strawberry mouse while the band play tea dance music.

In the foreground, the Turks and Germans have their act in gear and are making progress forwards, all the time under withering fire from the Andreivians. Some long range fire is exchanged between the Turkish 37mm on the train and the Andreivian MkV male tank.

Once the Turks closed the range, MMG and rifle fire broke many of the defenders, who were then wiped out in close assault, although the Turkish attackers were reduced to two men and were assisted by a berserk German rifleman who clubbed the last Andrevian to death with his rifle butt, only to succumb to his wounds immediately after. Andrevian troops attempting to surrender were despatched with bullet, bayonet and entrenching tool.

With the Academy fortress taken, the troops turn their attention on the second line, heading towards the vulnerable right flank where the line turns into a salient.

Over on the eastern front, The Turks have pushed Bertram Woosters British north across the river and Turkish cavalry have caught the mobile British Model T MMG cars bogged down crossing the river. Despite losses to British MMG fire, the Turkish cavalry spear the crews and capture the vehicles.

The Trans-Caucasian Soviet troops sweep forward towards Tcherbevan.

In the northeast, White Russians and Andrevians slug it out, although the city falls to a coup-de-main force of Cossacks entering the city unobserved.

All through the day, Andrevian police secure the English Church, while the British military mission secure their perimeter, eliminating the German-backed Turkish militias in downtown Tcherbevan. Late in the day, an Andreivian Fokker DVII takes off from the now secure airstrip and attempts to interdict Turkish troops on both fronts.

The Turkish commander, Mustapha Pasha finally calls up the battleship on the radio, relaying the location of a bombardment mission and the battleship races into position.

The Andrevian regulars suddenly find their northern defences turned, when Soviet forces win the hearts and minds of the Andrevian unit facing them, which defects and turns their guns on their former mates, destroying the mortar battery. The Andrevian commander cooly orders his HQ unit to turn 180 degrees and machine gun their former mates, which they do with gusto. He adds the Mk V female for good measure.

The German HQ group waiting to correct the fire of the Turkish battleship.

By the end of the first day, the Dvimin Military Academy is in Turkish hands.

The Turks (on the left) have forced the British Woosterforce to race into Tcherbevan to regroup and bolster up the Military delegation.

An eerily quiet Tcherbevan patrolled by Andrevian police and British units.

A handful of Soviet troops hold the Northern Black Sea coast, but the Andrevian army is too busy with Turks and Germans to turn and deal with them.

The net is closing in on the Andrevian army.

Lots of action around the table and I'm sure I've only picked up on a small fraction. The Turks and Germans were quite frustrated at first due to the small deployment area and the need to either cross a single bridge or embark on Dhows and barges, all under fire from the Andrevians.

Overnight, the Turks consolidated two dangerously weakened infantry units into a single force and reinforced the command unit with their 2 MMGs. The MMGs moved up into the Dvimin Academy fortress and the stage was set for Sunday, when the second trench line would be stormed and "tomorrow in Tcherbevan" became the Turkish and German marching slogan.

8 comments:

It was a lot of fun. We used Arc of Fire, which isn't my personal favourite, but seems to cope relatively well with the multi-player scenarios. It always helps if players are familiar with the system, but I only play using these rules once a year, so I'm always on a steep learning curve.

This time we used just one set of activation cards. It made play a bit slower but as we were all converging on one location, it made sense to keep everyone in sync. Previous games have used separate activation decks for each sector of the board, which helped the game clip along at a good pace.

We did actually use two decks on Saturday and one deck on Sunday. On the Saturday one deck activated units on the Tuzkhur Valley table section and the other activated units on the Tcherbevan and Black Sea Coast table section. On Sunday, as Andy says, we only had one deck as all units were converging on Tcherbevan.

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My hobbies include geology, wargames, music (especially Rock and Blues) and reading. As I'm also a geologist by profession (clastic sedimentology to be precise), my hobby activities centre on wargaming, reading and listening to my I-pod, not always at the same time.